How to get really sunburned!! Mud festival!!

After getting really sunburned in Busan I took a day off to get ready to go back to america on Friday. My friend danny also came and slept over at my house because on Saturday we were going to the Boryeong Mudfestival. its the biggest festival in Korea and had all kinds of activities involving mud which Boryeong is famous for. We went on a group tour thing and a bunch of my other friends came too! Allan was the organizer of our group, brittany, nicole, and alex also came. As did brittany's little brother Payton who was 6'5"!! he was a pretty cool guy. The first thing we did was a 5km mud run race. They said the top 10 runners would get prize money so I decided I would go for it! even though I haven't run at all in about a year and a half Im still in good shape from biking. I stayed with the top 5 guys fro 2km then the mud got a lot softer and I blew up hard! I had to stop and walk a few times!! Anyway the run was on this huge mudflat area and it was pretty cool to see. After that we bussed to the real festival which is held on a nice sand beach but they truck mud in from the mud flat where we had the race! At the festival they had mud slides, mud obstacle courses, mud wresting, mud painting and other stuff! it was really funny seeing thousands of people covered in mud. If you weren't covered in mud you stuck out! It was easy to clean off too because you could go jump in the ocean to wash off the mud! There were soo many people there! They had a free concert at night too with some korean pop stars that was really fun too. After it they had a huge outdoor dance party! Anyway it was a really good time and I made some new friends that I met at teh festival. Im definitely going back next year!! Right now I am waiting at the airport! My flight leaves in 1 hour!

Summer vacation!!!!

last weekend was another good one. lots of hanging out with friends and on saturday lots of rain. Sunday was nice though which was good becuase I went to this huge botanical gardens area in the south part of Yongin. It was really beatiful with lots of cool flowers, trees and other plants. My summer vacation started on Tuesday! After work I drove down to Busan with my friends Steve (another american teacher here), Khai( a really good friend of mine from purdue who is korean) and Peter (korean guy). We stayed at a youth hostel pretty close to the main big city market area and close to a beach. Wednesday we went to Hae un Dae beach which is the most famous beach in Korea. It was pretty crowded and you had to pay 5 bucks to rent a parasol(those big beach umbrellas to sit under. It was a really nice beach though. The waves were really fun for body surfing. Sunday we met my friend Mi sun from purdue and we went to this really pretty island/peninsula called Tae Jong Dae that had some huge cliffs and awesome views of the ships coming into the harbor. Then we went to this huge fish market and saw an octopus escape from its tank and start walking down the street!!!! It was crazy! They had all kinds of huge fish eels crabs sharks octopus squid and more! Up for this weekend is the Boryeong Mudfestival and then on Monday I am flying back to america for a 2 week visit! Call or email me if you want to hang out!

HOOFTA! School trip and white water rafting and bungee jumping!!

Last week was pretty crazy! I bought my plane ticket to go home to America (with a lot of help from my friend June)! Im coming back from July 26-August 7th! We also had our once a semester overnight school trip! We went out the the East Sea Gangwon Province Samcheok city. The first thing we did was sing on the bus. I got to sing first since I'm the youngest and I sang the one korean song that I know the words too (여행을닪아요!) which translates to Let's go on a trip! Singing (using a karoaoke machine that is built into the bus) on a moving bus that is driving on a winding mountain road is no easy task especially not when you have to read the lyrics in Korean! After that we visited Dae Gum Cave which was definitely the most beatiful cave of the 3 I have seen in my life. It had a creek/river running through it! After that we went to eat raw fish(회) for dinner. Somehow at my table 2 of the people didn't like fish so my and another guy got to eat what was intended for 4 people! We also drank some soju and everyone got really friendly. After that we went to our hotel and went to the Singing room. This time our principal was in a really good mood (last time she wasn't in a great mood) and every teacher wanted to sing to impress her. We all had a great time and I got to talk to a bunch of teachers I had never met. Saturday morning we at raw fish for breakfast!!!!! ahhh I didn't really want raw fish again but ate it anyway we also drank some more soju to relieve our hang overs! After that we drove to Daegwonryung which is a famous mountain ridge. There we visited a ranch on top of some mountains. It was beatiful and I've never seen so much grass in Korea! After that we ate beef from the ranch and it was definitely the best meat of any kind I have ever eaten in my life. Then we got on the bus and went to sleep!
Sunday I went rafting with Brittany and Nicole up in gangwon province again! We went on a guided trip and all we had to do was get on a bus in seoul. The rafting was pretty tame but we went bungee jumping after that! I had never bungee jumped before and this was a 170 foot bridge that we were gonna jump off! I was really scared but I did it. I'm glad I did it but I'm not exactly in a hurry to go bungee jump again! Anyway this week should be a little more tame and relaxed than last week.

Pictures from the podium

Winning a bike race!!

I finally won a bike race again! First time since the Depauw Collegiate Criterium in 2008!!!! It was a 50km road race in Hwaeng Song County Gangwon Province. It started with getting up at 4:30 am to drive the race with Pablo(Korean guy who is the boss/sponsor of the team) and my teammate Peter. It rained on the way there but the weather was nice the rest of the day. Anyway I was in the senior men 30 and under category for guys on road bikes and there were only about 30 people or so in the race. There were 3 2-3km climbs on the course and a few smaller ones so it was actually a pretty good course for me (no extended climbing). After riding pretty slow from the start 2 guys who were pretty fast attacked and I bridged up a minute later and so did Josh who is in the airforce here. The 4 of us worked put a big gap to the pack and worked well together. on the first climb one of the Korean guys set a pretty good pace and I thought he would be the man to watch. But on the second climb we dropped one guy and then josh put in a small effort and I waited for who I thought was the fast climber to follow but he didn't so I went up to Josh and we time trialed together. We worked well together until a downhill section where josh slightly over cooked a corner and had to break hard he shifted and jammed his chain and had to get off the bike to fix it. I waited a little then I realized there were only 5km to go and I didn't want us to get caught. I ended up finishing solo for the V. It was a super pretty course and I really enjoyed the race. I won a camel back, night riding light and a special jersey for winning the race. Im pleased to finally get a win! Im feeling pretty good riding lately but unfortunaly the only other race coming up before I go on a trip to america is a hill climb so Im gonna skip it. Im making friends with some of the riders from other teams who race here. Korea has a pretty nice racing scene and I can't wait to race a bunch this fall. Anyway it was really fun to get to be on the top of a podium again. so Im motivated to keep riding and stay in semi good shape besides the races here all have amazingly beatiful courses. A lot of people were taking pictures so hopefully I can find some online. to post here!
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